Lady Tigers run off with the invite team championship title

La Grande literally ran away with the the girls team crown Friday at the La Grande
Invitational.

Thanks to strong performances in the sprints and distances, the Lady Tigers scored 205 points to easily leave the other seven teams behind in the team scoring race.

Lexus Miller-Moylan won the 200 meters.

Jasmine Smith edged teammate Ally Tsiatsos to win the 400 meters.

Haley White won both the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdle races.

In the distances, La Grande’s Amanda Welch and Rose Winters had to settle for seconds behind Union’s tandem of Katriel O’Reilly and McKenzie Evans.

O’Reilly won both the 800-meter and the 3,000-meter races Friday, with Welch taking second in the shorter race and Winters following her to the line in the long race. Winters was second behind Evans in the 1,500 meters.

La Grande also won both the 400-meter and 1,600-meter relays.

Smith won the triple jump.

La Grande won seven of the 17 events Friday. They also picked up seven seconds and five thirds.

For La Grande head track coach Julie Bodfish, the athletes came up with good performances even though they hadn’t been focusing on the invitational.

The meet was the second of three scheduled within a week for the Tigers.

Miller-Moylan’s 27.27-second 200 meters moved the sophomore into 10th of the 4A bests.

More than 100 points behind La Grande was Baker with 99.5 points. Ontario was third (80.5), just ahead of Fruitland, Idaho (74.5) and Nyssa (71). Union finished sixth with 68 points, followed by McLoughlin (39.5) and Powder Valley (16).

“Lexus Miller-Moylan ran great in the 200,” said Bodfish after the meet. “It’s nice to see all these teams here. It is great to see the competition.” Miller-Moylan left her closest competition two seconds behind in the 200 meters, while teammates Alora Brown and Alissa Welberg placed third (29.27 seconds) and fourth (29.66), respectively.

“Winters ran great in the 3,000,” Bodfish said. Winters ran her second-fastest time of the year as she finished behind O’Reilly of Union.

Haley White won both hurdle races and helped the Lady Tigers win the 400-meter relay Friday. White clocked a 16.51 victory in the 100-meter hurdles and followed that with a 50.89 win in the 300-meter hurdles. Her 100-meter hurdle time is the fastest in the Greater Oregon League this season and the third-fastest in the 4A division. White has the second-fastest 300-meter hurdle time in league, one second slower than Ridgeview’s Dakota Steen.

Although La Grande’s winning 400-meter relay time of 51.76 seconds is the fastest time in the GOL, it just broke into the 4A top 10, one-hundredth of a second behind Philomath’s quartet.

The Tigers used the foursome of White, Ally Tsiatsos, Alora Brown and Miller-Moylan to break into the 4A elite.

In the 1,600-meter relay, La Grande got another win with Smith, Tsiatsos, Erin Bodfish and Miller Moylan finishing with a 4:26.81 -— almost six seconds in front of the second place team from Fruitland. It is the fastest time in the GOL, four-hundredths of a second in front of Ridgeview’s best time.

Several of the athletes were not running in their best events, but still had good performances, Bodfish said.

La Grande picked up a second, third and fifth finish in the long jump with Amy Hickey leading the Lady Tigers with a 14-11 effort. Anneleise Wiseman finished third (14-6) and Rachel Alexander was fifth (14-2 ¾). Hickey also grabbed a second in the pole vault by clearing 7-6. Wiseman also was fourth in the shot put (28-3 ½) and second in the javelin (102-4).

Bullard wins high jump

In the high jump, it was the battle of smaller schools with Union’s Stormy Bullard clearing 5 feet to edge Powder Valley’s Ali Abrego, who finished with a best of 4-10. There was a four-way tie for third at 4-6 with leapers from Ontario, Fruitland, Baker and Nyssa. Abrego picked up half her team’s points with her second in the high jump.

O’Reilly did well with her 800-3,000 distance double, Union track coach Jay Blackburn said. “She ran a 2:26 in a heck of a race.” The junior battled La Grande’s top distance runner Welch early before pulling away for a10-second victory margin in the final lap.

Evans had a strong afternoon, winning the 1,500 meters and taking third in the 800 meters.

Blackburn was also pleased with the effort of freshman Brooke Stewart in the shot put, where she took seventh (26-9 ¾) and ninth in the discus (70-2). “It was a good day for her.”

After four events, it was a close battle between La Grande, Fruitland and Union in the team race. La Grande had 29, while Fruitland was right behind with 28.5 and the Lady Cats had 27 points.

Just two events later, the Lady Tigers had jumped to a 58-34 lead over Baker in the team race and the scoring surge continued. La Grande had 73 points after seven events.

After nine events, the Lady Tigers had a 101-49 lead over Union in the team race, followed by Ontario with 44.5 points.

The Tigers kept rolling up the score, adding another 104 points in the final eight events of the invitational.